Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
By the time you get to read this, Parliament would have formally ended its budget session, not that it discussed the budget, nor that it even cared to clear routine day-today business; not to speak of legislative business. What this, perhaps the third last session of the present Lok Sabha– the elders were no exception in their own chamber– did achieve, though, was to shock us out of the mistaken belief that India is the world’s most populous “democracy”.
A parliamentary session, with MPs sitting in neat rows divided into gently serried blocks– the treasury benches to the right of the Speaker’s podium and the opposition to the left– indeed makes for an inspiring picture. At least that is the impression I gathered the first time I entered the portals of the “august” house some 60 years ago, courtesy a temporary three-day Press gallery card given to me by a senior.
A decade and a half after that I had occasion, as my paper’s Parliamentary Correspondent, to see the two chambers that constitute our parliament at work. That lasted for three years and what a horrible difference men and women of today have wrought on the hallowed institution which our founding fathers had given us.
I remember Dr. Radhakrishnan, then Vice-President, which, automatically made him the chairman of the Upper House, guiding members as he conducted the business for the day. I saw the former teacher ordering “Bhupesh….” And the ranking leader on the Opposition benches Bhupesh Gupta (Communist Party) would instantly resume his seat. Not the kind of mayhem we witness in both the houses now. No one dared question the presiding officers then.
You were not allowed even to hold up a newspaper, let alone today’s banners (posters), never the unseemly scenes of members ritually marching into the well of the House, bringing to a halt the day’s business.
Speakers like Mavalnakar or even Hukam Singh knew exactly how and when to stop transgressions, always going by the rules of procedure. A Speaker with an abundance of commonsense (forget the rules of procedure), Sanjiva Reddy had his own way of ensuring orderly conduct of business.
An abrasive Mr. Kachwai, a former wrestler turned MP, sporting a fearsome moustache, one day chose to get angry and began yelling at the top of his voice. Two other members were at the same time vying for Speaker Reddy’s attention for their respective points of order, the rule book in their hands. “Sir, I rise on rule…..” the two of them said simultaneously. That’s when Kachwai got into the act; he had not received the Hindi version of a document. All hell broke loose with the Kerala MP, the late Mr. Sreekantan Nair, some six feet plus tall with a walrus moustache, boomed: “Sir, I don’t want this man around, no Hindi”. Reddy got from his chair and shouted I am on my legs. Pin-drop silence. “Mr.Kachwai”, says the Speaker, “it’s your turn to make noise, as much of it as you like”.
The whole house burst into laughter and the points of order were quietly disposed of; importantly, Kachwai too joined the laughter.
I don’t remember a single occasion during the three years I had spent in the Press gallery when the House was forced to adjourn on account of disorderly conduct by MPs. I remember one instance, though, when a disorderly member was promptly named by the chair and suspended for the day. I wonder why the present Speaker Mrs. Meira Kumar doesn’t invoke the rules to bring unruly members to order. There were numerous occasions where the Speaker would have restored order in the House merely by exercising the powers vested in the chair.
The budget session would in the past indeed involve a thread-bare examination of the proposals, particularly when the demands for grants of various Ministries were taken up for consideration. Some Ministries like say, Defence, Agriculture and External Affairs, not unoften, got a whole day to consider the demands for grants of the various departments which in effect meant a detailed scrutiny of the performance of the Ministries. Very few demands faced the guillotine, unlike last week’s summary disposal of the budget and the Finance Bill, all passed within less than four hours and that, too, only after the political parties had condescended to let the House function for a while that day. The Bharatiya Janata Party nevertheless walked out on some pretext.
After seeing our MPs’ non-performance this Budget session, I wonder how much longer will it take our political parties to understand that they are willingly or otherwise taking the country downhill towards anarchy. How can these men of conscience (?) come to Parliament House, sign up for the day, stall its work and then vanish after ensuring that the both Houses ceased to function. They mark their presence in the attendance register each day because it entitles them to their daily allowance, apart from their hefty pay-packets, free air- conditioned accommodation etc. not to mention the seven-figure constituency allowance meant for development of their respective constituencies.
I don’t know how much of it is used for legitimate purposes nor am I questioning their right to spend it in any manner they consider useful. I am not sure though whether any audit is done, if at all, of the developmental works undertaken by the MPs under this special dispensation.
Both the present Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha could indeed end up with the dubious distinction of being the least productive of all their predecessor chambers. Compared to the other Lok Sabhas that completed their full terms, the present one has transacted the least business.
And it is not as if there was no business listed for each day. The government, a picture of disarray, has a long list of bills which are either awaiting discussion or, as in most other cases, remain within the bound covers of official files without even being introduced.
In their mood of self-destructiveness members from almost all parties have failed to introduce their “private” bills, (Friday afternoons are traditionally devoted to the introduction of such bills,) the ones they would want to see on the statute book, if passed or adopted as its own by the government.
According to statistics compiled by Lok Sabha Secretariat a mere 1,157 hours of sittings (most of it in squabbling) took place until the 12th session of the 15th Lok Sabha since 2009. Among the least productive Houses so far was the 14th Lok Sabha clocking 1737 hours in five years. The present Lok Sabha may clock much lesser time spent in sittings; it has to clock some 600 hours in less than a year- a far cry indeed, given the fact that there are just two sessions to go before the present House completes its five-year term or in case there are early elections.
According to those whose business it is to keep a watch on the functioning of the Lok Sabha, the present Lok Sabha’s failure to transact any business since the resumption of the budget session (barring some four hours it gave to passing it and the Finance Bill last week) deepens the worry that the House is losing more time during sessions to acrimony and trading of charges.
Given the declining standards of our parliamentary performance it would appear that the political parties, the whole lot, are more intent on scoring points over each other than transacting the nation’s business. It is not unusual these days to hear the lament that our political class as a whole has failed. The obsession with exposing the fault lines- and they are as numerous as they are horrendous- in each camp has acquired worrying proportions. Individual MPs could still have made a difference but their argument is somewhat like this:
The working of the Lok Sabha is not conducive to diligence nor does it favour the kind of atmosphere that could lead to legislation to stem the rot. The fact, though, is that a very large number of MPs have or have had criminal pasts; many have criminal cases pending against them even as they flaunt those “Lal Batis” which apparently puts them beyond pale of law.
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